The ABA/"The Silence of the Lambs"

Donald Trump has targeted all of our legal systems including judges, juries and law firms full of attorneys that the President does not like. So, when does the ABA get involved? Aren't all of you still officers of the court? Let every attorney who still believes in the rule of law make their position known if they feel a 235 year old legal document should still be protected.

Running out of road?

The American Bar Association does not appear to be familiar with the French expression: “qui ne dit mot consent”, silence is consent.

I'm 88 years old and not in the best of health. In the eighth grade while I was in civics class, I was introduced to the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution. I did a book report on Lincoln the Unknown. I memorized the Gettysburg Address. I loved American history ever since. I feel threatened politically at this very moment in America by forces that in my opinion are un-American and anti-American over the rule of law.  I have no plans to be silent about it, and the offensive talk coming from the Executive Branch regarding revenge or retribution has no effect on my political position. And it should not impact any patriotic American seeking to uphold our U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, our President reminds me of Britain’s George III, who threatened the American colonists who were objecting to his unreasonable rules. Don't forget, that King was also cruel and unusual, and he didn't get along with many of his subjects. Sadly for him, he died totally insane, as the United States went on and prospered.

Please ABA, note well that those 55 men in Philadelphia (many were lawyers) in 1787 were concerned that they had taken an oath to the Articles of Confederation, which slowed them down in seeking a new political alternative strategy. Because of the political failing of the Articles, they knew they had to structure something more lasting. So, the United States Constitution was born. That document has lasted for over 235 years. Remember in the three hot summer months that year in Philadelphia those 55 men studied and studied and studied, past governments, trying to find a special political bulletproof document. George Washington, the father of our country, was tormented by the inability of our young nation to govern itself after the victory over England. They debated and debated and finally concluded with a document for “we the people”. Their intent was to form a “more perfect union”. George Washington did not want to be king or a dictator. They settled on a three-part legal document containing a Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial, each part was supposed to closely oversee the other two parts. Dear reader, dear voter, do not forget these 55 men represented much of the power and a lot of the wealth of the colonies. But in effect they said, “oh the hell with it, let's turn it all over to the people and gamble that they will do the right thing for their fellow citizens”. How did that turn out? Well as I said, that document has set a record for survival of over 238 years.

So now, in 2025, we have to face what Plato said many years ago: “democracies pass into despotism”. Does this apply to the United States right now? You betcha! We now have a President and a Co-president both quite cruel and very unusual. They seem full of deceit and project abusive power. They both readily admit that they hate to be fact checked. Did they obtain their political position properly and legally? In my opinion, dear reader, they did not. There was fraud at the outset, because Project 2025 which currently absorbs most of their current political strategy, was denied by them all last summer. They purposely hid what would become their political modus operandi when they took office. And don’t forget co-President Elon Musk bought his way into power with the donation of over $250 million to the Trump campaign. He was so rich he was able to ingratiate himself into positions of power and influence. The positions are unofficial, but very powerful, including the head of DOGE (Dept of Government Efficiency). His power was so complete, many pundits called him the co-President. He sat in cabinet meetings and was interviewed as a powerful political figure.

President Trump and co-President Elon Musk, in my opinion, leave a trail of disinformation, deceit, and terrible suffering as they are determined to bulldoze all of our Institutions outlined under Project 2025. Elon Musk as head of DOGE said, we must “kill the weeds”. And then make sure that the Institutions are all destroyed, or “the weeds will come back”. Please fact check, fact check what he said. We must all remember the fact that four months ago we were the most envied free country in the world. Our economy had just come off 17,000,000 new jobs, our inflation rate was below all EU countries. And we were coming off a strengthened NATO and unifying the European Union. We gave Ukraine $130 billion of military aid to help them, keep the Russians at bay.

But now we turn over our Institutions completely to an unofficial, dogmatic, wealthy operative and his young pushy group of “move aside” invaders of the Institutions from DOGE. How are they doing so far? “Move in, tear it all down, get rid of some weeds, and do it in a hurry! Oops!" In the two months so far they let too many important staff people go. "Get some of them back immediately", should be the tale of them acting too quickly. Crash, bang, keep going, full speed ahead!

Suddenly out of nowhere, President Donald Trump has decided he wants to add territory to the United States of America, in Panama, Canada and Greenland. This is news to most of us as voters. It is also news that President Trump has taken the side of Russia empathetically, sympathetically and politically. He has lost any political affection for NATO, the European Union, and Ukraine. What is the meaning of this? The meaning of this dear reader is, Donald Trump, if you examine his political history in the past 10 years, has utmost respect for Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban. He also has respect for China and North Korea and in fact voted with those two countries when the UN in February, passed a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. voted “no” on that condemnation. Was this a political surprise? Yep! This is dramatic, because for 80 years we have been the leader of the free world. To have a President who now considers Putin a better leader than George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Ronald Reagan, seems utterly and completely out of step with American principles. In fact, in a recent poll suggests that 80% of the American public views Vladimir Putin unfavorably. So, what's going on here, what's going on with President Trump having a co-President in Elon Musk seemingly and continuously partnering in all political strategy. And in so doing they are haphazard, as if driving a bulldozer completely out of control. We simply cannot predict what removing 80,000 veterans ("weeds" ) jobs will do. Making 73 million Social Security recipients nervous is absolutely not a good idea. Closing down the Department of Education, stripping the EPA of most of its regulatory powers, making the Department of Justice, the FBI and the CIA all completely  loyal to the Executive Branch, should not be the America we will tolerate.

Dear reader, never forget, all Trump's Presidential appointees and all his faithful MAGA Republicans are expected to believe that Joe Biden ran a rigged election in 2020. Were the MAGA followers given proof supported by facts and evidence of his claim? Nope. Meanwhile Donald Trump for ever and ever supported the insurrectionists that attacked the Capitol building. In that Capitol building were several hundred police, and as many as 55% had voted for President Donald Trump. Note well dear reader, this loyal MAGA group of believers in fake politics, are now running our DOJ, FBI, and the CIA. They are going along with a fake interpretation of events from 2021. But they must live in a "lets pretend" world that says the 2020 Presidential election was stolen by Joe Biden. Sound ridiculous? You betcha! Now 83% of Americans polled disagree with the President having given 1,600 insurrectionists a pardon.

What is the outcome of all these unsupported assertions? Well, I can only say Donald Trump won the Presidency by 1.5% of the vote over Kamala Harris.  From my studies since November 5th, President Donald Trump has turned the White house into a casino/department store with next to no transparency of what is going on within daily operations. We don't know the outcome of the meme coin LLC operations, we don't know how many one hundred-thousand-dollar watches have been sold, or how much dark money, domestic and foreign is being carried out. Don't forget Mara Lago is open for business on weekends! Is the public entitled to know answers to the goings on of wheeling and dealing involving millions and millions of dollars? All of the inspectors general of every department including the miliary have been arbitrarily fired. All of the oversight is gone, we simply must take the word of the Executive Branch. And we all know his loyal Attorney General, FBI and DOJ are not in the watch dog business over the Executive Branch anymore.

What's my point, well, President Donald Trump has targeted much of our legal systems including judges, juries and law firms full of attorneys that the President does not like. So, when does the ABA get involved? Aren't all of you still officers of the court?

Let every attorney who still believes in the rule of law make their position known if they feel a 235 year old legal document should still be protected.

So ABA, Where do you and your 1.4 million attorneys stand? For or against the rule of law in America? We need you to show that you care and will fight for our U.S. Constitution.

God bless the United States of America and all of its institutions and great traditions for freedom and liberty. And we must all pray, as Christians, Jews, Muslims, agnostics and atheists for the well-being of Ukraine under our voluntary NATO obligations. Please note precisely that American citizens polled want the United States to back Ukraine not Russia.

Let justice prevail!

Opening Image: Shutterfool on flickr, Tom Pennington/Getty Images, Dreamstime.com, Freepik.com